Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Historic Transition from Black and White to Color Films

Overall
– Comic frame. No one trying to destroy black and white films.

Burke
Frame

Quote
or Reference

Interpretation

Early
Days

Films
were black and white-sort of. About 80 percent had some sort of color due to
dyes, stencils, color baths, or tints in at least part of the movie. These
colors were used to create a mood and/or a sense of magic. Gives examples
with fantasy, other worlds and emotions from the late 1800s to the 1920s-Heller.

Using
a new technology for entertainment. Reflection of society and its mood. It
was really fascinating to see how they used color when it was all done by
hand. It is very different from today’s films, but it creates great moods. It
was interesting that some people seemed to think color was best for less
serious works. We have come a long way.

Plot
under way

“artists
want to show motion in color” – always. Color is expensive and not easy to
use. (Technicolor issues) – faces in “Becky Sharpe” criticized as looking
like “roast turkeys”.

Artists
complained that color is distracting from the actors– Vance et al.

Color
is a “commercial gimmick” and black and white lets you focus on what is most
important – Tarkovsky interview

Color
is a moving painting – not life like. – Tarkovsky

In
the film reviews in the 1939 and 1940 New York Times for the films “Rebecca,”
“Gone With the Wind,” and “The Wizard of Oz”, color was only mentioned in the
one for “Gone With the Wind.”That
review said Scarlett was beautiful in Technicolor.It also said that “color is hard on the
eyes for so long a picture.” - Nugent

Even
in cave drawings, there is sometimes color. Color is used occasionally in the
1930s and 1940s. Tension between artistic desires of filmmakers and how to
use color effectively.

The
idea of a distraction sounds like Dr. Vrooman’s comments on slides.“Everything distracts from everything
else”.

Some
people thought that black and white films showed better character
development. I am not sure, but have never seen an all black and white film.
Character development seems fine in today’s color films.

It
was very hard to find much mention of color or lack of it in old movie
reviews.Most of the comments were
about characterization.It may have
been more of an issue for the filmmakers than the critics or maybe it was
elsewhere – not sure. Or maybe everyone just accepted that most films were in
black and white and did not think about it.

Transition

Competition
from television made the movie makers switch to color. When television
switched to color in the mid 1960s, film had to follow-Vance et al.

Not
everyone loved color. Douglas Fairbanks was quoted as saying that color may
detract more than it added. That it may take away from acting. – Vance et al.

The
public wanted to have color everywhere. In order to make money, I think the
film industry had to switch in order to survive.

It
sounds like a difficult transition. It is hard to imagine some of these conversations
because I have always seen films that are in color. They do not really seem
distracting to me.